Eight Eyes, As Cold As Blood-Soaked Ice
by Hannahmayski
Summary: Spiders are quiet. Spiders make their move when you least expect it. Kurama, for all his old man grumpiness, has drilled this into Naruto enough times that sometimes it's all he can think about. Naruto stays quiet. Naruto minds his own business. And it works. (Kurama is a spider instead of a fox. This changes things.) Pt 7 of Fic Title Meme asks (that keep turning into mini fics)
1. Chapter 1

**Fic Title Meme asks (that keep turning into mini fics so they're on here now too)**

 **Summary: spiders are quiet. Spiders make their move when you least expect it. Kurama, for all his old man grumpiness, has drilled this into Naruto enough times that sometimes it's all he can think about.**

 **Naruto stays quiet.**

 **Naruto minds his own business.**

 **And it works.**

 **(Kurama is a spider instead of a fox. This changes things.)**

* * *

Spiders are quiet. Spiders make their move when you least expect it. Kurama, for all his old man grumpiness, has drilled this into Naruto enough times that sometimes it's all he can think about.

Naruto stays quiet.

Naruto minds his own business.

And it works.

He's still not the smartest, he doesn't know enough about a lot of things, but Naruto is close, so, so close to getting the chakra webs right. Shuriken throwing doesn't matter when he can produce web thick enough to stop them, thick enough to stop a Katana, sharp enough to cut.

Naruto stays quiet. Naruto keeps his head down, because that's what spiders do, and that's how spiders _win._

It's much of a fluke that Naruto stumbles upon a nameless boy the same age as him. This boy has no name. He does not smile. He does not laugh. He barely speaks.

But, he looks at Naruto like he's _something._ He looks at Naruto, at his ideas, at his chakra webs, and he's impressed.

The boy doesn't have parents to go home to, people to confide in, someone to lean on. Just like Naruto, this boy is lonely.

Their meetings become more frequent, and the boy starts to draw. He draws naruto's chakra webs, he draws the markings on Naruto's face. He draws and draws until Naruto finds himself unable to look away.

("I can't keep calling you 'kid;" Naruto says one day.  
"Yes you can," the boy says.  
"You deserve a name," Naruto says, leaning against him. He stiffens and ducks his head from Naruto's gaze.  
"I do not."  
"I will call you Sai."  
" _No."  
_ "You're my only friend. You deserve a name," Naruto says. Maybe it's the wrong thing to say if Sai's tiny frown is anything to go by, but anyone willing to sit with Naruto every day at least deserves, at the very least, a name.)

The first night they spend together is the same night that Sai screams himself awake, the same night that Naruto graduates the academy and the same night that he decides that this 'Lord Danzou' that Sai can't stop talking about, the man who gives Sai those nightmares, the same man who's sucking away Sai's humanity, will have to pay for his crimes.

Naruto waits until he's skilled enough with poisons and three quarters on his way to Chuunin before he tries anything. He leaves little things, poison in places Danzou will notice, but with a clear indication that he could do more. A lot more.

Everyone forgets about Naruto, so it's okay. No one expects him. It's just enough to put Danzou on edge, just enough to make him uncomfortable, just enough to make him realise that there is someone who _knows_ what he's doing and they don't like it.

Sakura looks at him with the fascination of someone who wants to ask a million questions. She always has, but when Naruto finally lets her _look_ at him, she doesn't look at his strange, strange body in disgust, she looks in amazement.

("You're beautiful," she tells him as she scribbles down more notes.  
"you're the first to think so," Naruto tells her.  
"Everyone else is just stupid."  
Naruto realises he's made another friend.)

Sakura is _strong_ Naruto realises, but everyone forgets about her too, just like everyone forgets about him, just like everyone forgets about Sai.

"It's better that no one remembers," Sai tells them both, like the blood pouring from so many wounds is okay. "They won't hurt us then."

Naruto realises too many people have hurt Sai. And if there was an explosion in the Root compound right where Danzou was that day, well… no one expects Naruto.

No one expects Naruto except one shinobi.

He looks at Naruto like he hasn't slept in a week and there's an eye missing. But… the shinobi, Shisui, his name is, shrugs him off. "Make the bastard suffer," he says.  
"Did he hurt you?" Naruto asks. Shisui points one finger at the missing eye and Naruto understands. Danzou hurt this shinobi. Danzou hurt this shinobi _a lot._

Naruto leaves Shisui with one of the tiny spiders that are always on him and Shisui takes it, smiling. Shisui's smiles are pained and they often fall through halfway, but he's trying.

"You're a good kid," he says.

Naruto and Sakura make Chuunin and Sai makes more scars and more memories that he wants to forget. Naruto realises that Shisui has even more reasons to scream himself awake then all of them put together.

They're all bundled into Shisui's apartment when Naruto looks up at the ceiling and says, "what if we left. Then no one can hurt us anymore."

He's met with silence, but no outright refusal and Naruto thinks that speaks for itself.

One night, Naruto packs up everything he owns which isn't much and meets Sai, Sakura and Shisui at the gate.

They've been hurt too much and so when they turn their backs on the village that tried so hard to kill them from the inside out, Naruto regrets nothing.


	2. Chapter 2

**Kurama is a good, grumpy spider dad.**

* * *

When Kurama meets Sai for the first time, the boy stares back at him through unblinking eyes that reveal nothing.

Kurama sees his reflection in them and nothing more.

But Kurama is old, and Humans don't stare blankly, Humans don't _do that._ When people see him their faces contort, fear clenched around their soul and yet this boy stands there. This boy looks at him through dead eyes.

"Who hurt you?" Kurama asks and he can feel Naruto's gaze on him, curious and bubbly, cold but always kind.

Sai does not move even as Kurama shoves his face into Sai's personal space. He grins as he sees Sai's hand twitch involuntarily, longing for the sword on his back.

"I don't understand," Sai says and Kurama shuffles himself impatiently. Humans are supposed to feel. Humans breath more anger like it's the only thing that keeps them alive, they feed of spite like it's the only resource they have, they bathe in sadness like they have no other choice.

Some breathe in compassion with the determination of someone with the world on their shoulders.

But humans aren't this. Humans aren't blank.

Naruto darts forward then, coming to stand next to Sai. "Danzou," Naruto says to him. "Danzou took everything from you. Danzou _hurt_ you."

"Lord Danzou is just doing what's best for the Village," Sai says. His voice is still too blank, too empty and Kurama _hates_ it.

Kurama curls forward, curling up with a few of his front legs extended in invitation. Naruto nestles himself in, dragging Sai along with him, and Kurama tucks them both against his body.

"Well, he's doing a shit job of it," Kurama grunts. Sai won't understand right now, that what Danzou did to him was wrong, but Kurama has no doubt Naruto will help Sai feel again.

Kurama wants Sai to feel again, wants Sai to be Human again. Kurama swore off humans centuries ago, but these kids… they're a little different.


	3. Poison and Silk

It's the middle of the night, and Naruto is curled into a tiny ball, his legs pressed up to his chest and he scribbles seals onto the scroll spread out in front of him. Modified, to incorporate his silk into them.

Sakura's back is pressed against his with tiny bottles of poisons surrounding her in a manner of organised chaos.

Shisui is asleep on the futon he's spread out, wanting to be in their presence rather than his and Aoba's room. Aoba's arms are wrapped around Shisui's waist, with his face half obscured in Shisui's t-shirt.

They both look incredibly at peace, wrapped around each other, Both with full faces on display, no Hitai-ate covering Shisui's empty eye socket and a chunk of his face and no sunglasses covering Aoba's eyes, and his own Hitai-ate abandoned.

It's a strange sight that Naruto thinks he can absolutely get used to. It's a strange thing, to see two very strong people look so vulnerable out of uniform, but regardless of their strength, they're still human.

And they both trust them enough to sleep in their presence.

Naruto can see Shisui's eye bags more than ever in the dim light of the apartment. They're never as bad as Tenzou's permanent look of bone-deep exhaustion, but it's enough to leave a hollow feeling in Naruto's chest. His complexion looks almost sickly almost reflective of how much Shisui has struggled to get his body, health and mind back to where it was before Danzou had hurt him so.

Aoba looks tired. Worn in a way that makes Naruto realise that it's not something sleep can cure. Naruto knows a whole lot of nothing about Aoba, but Kurama has noticed the worried glances Shisui gives him too often for it to be nothing.

Aoba and Shisui will be fine, but that's hardly the point.

Sai is sleeping on another futon near Naruto and Sakura's heads. Covered in bandages and bruises, his pale skin taking on a grey complexion.

 _It's okay_ Sai had told Aoba, doubled over in his arms, bleeding from so many places Naruto hadn't know what to do.

 _The mission was a success,_ Sai tells them, even with his body a mess and there was no way Sai isn't hurting, his voice is as level as always. His face didn't let through, even though he must be in _agony_ he never flinched when Sakura had helped stitch together the worst of the wounds with Shisui and Aoba.

Which lands them here now.

Sai is bound to Danzou for now, and it's risky enough as it is for him to even be associating with them. One day, Naruto and Kurama will get him out. One day, they'll free all of the Root agents trapped in Danzou's program.

But for now, they plan.

Sakura leans over to him, her head tilted at a painful angle. One of Naruto's spiders crawls up her arm and Sakura spares it a gentle pat.

"Once we get into the barracks can we use your spiders to get the poisons and the seals in their places?" she asks.

That's the problem, getting their traps where Danzou will accidentally set them off. But Naruto has been practising making the silk blankets lately and he's given them to Root operatives. He even managed to convince one of the older Root veterans that he should take it, and one of his largest, beautiful spiders.

He's established rapport and the closest thing to trust with people who are almost just puppets.

Naruto thinks he and Kurama can convince them to get the traps set up. He'll use the spiders just in case that plan falls apart to be safe.

"I think I might be able to convince some of the Root shinobi to help us, but we can use the spiders too," he says. Kurama rumbles deep inside of him, Naruto can visualise him stretching out his legs and his big eyes blinking away the sleep without even seeing him.

"How's the kid?" Kurama asks, his voice rumbling through Naruto.

"Kurama wants to know how Sai is," Naruto tells Sakura and she nods, carefully pulling herself to her feet, careful not to dislodge any precious bottles and closes the small distance between them and Sai's sleeping, unmoving body.

He nudges Kurama with his mind in acknowledgement.

Sakura turns back to him after a moment. Her face is dark, and Naruto knows what's she's feeling without her saying a thing.

Danzou hurt Shisui. Nearly killed him in both the physical and mental sense. Danzou hurt Tenzou, let Orochimaru experiment on his as a _baby_ and then dragged him through Root. The only reason Tenzou isn't still a part of it was a fluke meeting with Kakashi.

(Naruto can't say how happy he is that Tenzou and Kakashi have one another. If not, Naruto thinks they wouldn't be anything close to the happiness they've achieved.)

And here is Danzou, burning Sai's soul from the inside out along with every Root shinobi under his orders.

But that's why they're doing this. They can't kill Danzou, but they can make him a paranoid mess.

"He's okay. He just needs to rest," she says, slipping back against Naruto's side.

He nods and lets himself drift into his and Kurama's shared mindscape. The spider folds himself down to be closer to him, waiting.

"Sakura says he should be alright, he just needs to sleep," Naruto says and Kurama grumbles out something Naruto doesn't make out.

"Maybe you should just kill the bastard," he growls, leaning closer to Naruto until he's laying right at his feet.

"We _can't._ If we could, Shisui and Aoba would have figured it out a way," he sits down, pressed against Kurama's head.

"Still," Kurama says. "He deserves it."

Naruto nods and knows it's true. He's hurt so many people, so many of Naruto's precious ones as well. Danzou deserves a thousand deaths and one more.

"We're going to make him suffer all the same," Naruto whispers. He pats Kurama's head and lets the mindscape fade back to the living room.

Sakura has organised the bottles in some sort of order, used to Naruto's conversations with Kurama.

She rolls over to face him and her eyes linger in Shisui, Aoba and Sai for a little too long.

"Are we really doing it?" she asks, although there isn't a thread of unwillingness in her voice.

"Of course," Naruto says.

They can't kill Danzou. They're not strong enough and Like Aoba said, the political implications of that wouldn't be worth it.

They can't kill him, but they can make him suffer all the same.


End file.
